Alumni

Different forms of short-term diaspora return programmes have been used by host- and origin-country governments and international organisations to incentivise and manage diaspora return visits for knowledge transfer and capacity development. Based on data from the ´Connecting Diaspora for Development´ (CD4D) project in Ethiopia, Sierra Leone and Somaliland, this dissertation examines how diaspora members contribute to knowledge transfer and capacity development at host institutions in their countries of origin as part of such programmes. It proposes a framework for knowledge transfer and capacity development in this context, theorising return visits for knowledge transfer as a distinct type of return visit and adding empirical evidence on them. First, this dissertation distinguishes between three processes (information transmission, knowledge creation and contributions to organisational capacity development) and identifies three levels of capacity development (high, medium and low). The results indicate that information transmission is more common than knowledge creation and organizational capacity development. Second, the study examines factors that enable or inhibit these processes at the individual, group, and contextual levels across the three processes, showing that information transmission is influenced by individual- and group-level factors, knowledge creation mostly depends on group- and contextual-level factors and contributions to capacity development are affected by individual-, group- and contextual-level factors. Third, it also addresses how diaspora members deal with stigma by employing adaptation, signaling, and addressing strategies.

	Selected publications by Charlotte Mueller
Articles (journal, professional, popular)
Kuschminder, Katherine, Charlotte Mueller, Kiza Magendane & Yannicke Goris, 2021, `Diaspora and knowledge transfer - the evidence, The Broker, More information
Book chapters
Mueller, Charlotte, 2020, Diaspora Knowledge Transfer in Sierra Leone and Somaliland, in: Maty Konte and Linguère Mously Mbaye (eds), Migration, Remittances, and Sustainable Development in Africa, Routledge, Abingdon/New York, More information
Research reports
Mueller, Charlotte, Soha Youssef & Katherine Kuschminder, 2021, Connecting Diaspora for Development 2 (CD4D2) Mid-Term Report, IOM The Hague, More information
Mueller, Charlotte & Katherine Kuschminder, 2020, Connecting Diaspora for Development 2 (CD4D2) Initial Report, Study commissioned by IOM, More information
Mueller, Charlotte & Katherine Kuschminder, 2019, Connecting Diaspora for Development: Final Report, Research report commissioned by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), More information
Mueller, Charlotte & Katherine Kuschminder, 2018, Connecting Diaspora for Development: Mid-Term Report, Research report commissioned by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), More information
Mueller, Charlotte, Katharina Koch & Nora Jasmin Ragab, 2018, Mapping the Peruvian diaspora in Germany, Study commissioned by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, More information
Mueller, Charlotte, Katharina Koch & Nora Jasmin Ragab, 2018, Mapping the Ecuadorian diaspora in Germany, Study commissioned by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, More information
Mueller, Charlotte, Katherine Kuschminder & Sarah Langley, 2017, Connecting Diaspora for Development: Baseline Report, Research report commissioned by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), More information
Theses
Mueller, Charlotte, 2023, Diaspora return visits for knowledge transfer and capacity development: a case study of IOM’s connecting diaspora for development project in Ethiopia, Sierra Leone and Somaliland, PhD dissertation Maastricht University, More information
Other (editorship, media appearance, keynote, etc.)
Mueller, Charlotte, 2019, , Migrant Knowledge - Writing knowledge into the history of migration and migration into the history of knowledge. A blog curated by GHI Washington Pacific Regional Office Berkeley, More information
Mueller, Charlotte, 2019, , UNU-MERIT Blog, More information
Mueller, Charlotte, 2018, , NVVN Edition Migration and Development, More information